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20-554: The party was founded in January 2001. Five months after the party was founded, it nominated 56 candidates across the province for the May 16, 2001 provincial elections . During the election campaign, BC Unity positioned itself as a solidly conservative party, in contrast to the BC Liberals. Despite being included in the leaders debate, along with Premier Dosanjh and Liberal Leader Gordon Campbell

40-783: A bribery scandal involving Premier Glen Clark . With the NDP's ratings flatlining, Clark resigned in August 1999, and Deputy Premier Dan Miller took over as caretaker premier until Ujjal Dosanjh was elected his permanent successor in February. Dosanjh was not, however, able to restore the party's public image, and the BC NDP suffered a resounding defeat at the hands of the British Columbia Liberal Party (BC Liberals), led by former Vancouver mayor Gordon Campbell . The BC Liberals won over 57% of

60-502: A failed second attempt at a merger with BC Conservatives . An Act was passed in 2000 providing for an increase of seats from 75 to 79, upon the next election. The following changes were made: Notes x – less than 0.005% of the popular vote. * The party did not nominate candidates in the previous election. Unity Party results are calculated relative to Family Coalition Party results. Dan Miller (Canadian politician) Arthur Daniel Miller (born December 24, 1944)

80-897: A merger with the BC Conservative Party, and the General Meeting confirmed this motion. The BC Conservative Party accepted the former BC Unity Party memberships at their April 19, 2008 executive meeting in Abbotsford. The BC Unity Party de-registered five registered constituency associations, and planned to complete the merger and de-registration process before the BC Conservative Party AGM in Kamloops on Saturday June 7, 2008. 2001 British Columbia general election Ujjal Dosanjh New Democratic Gordon Campbell Liberal The 2001 British Columbia general election

100-618: A news release to announce that it was looking for a new leader and for candidates for the 2009 provincial election . On January 26, 2008, the BC Unity Party Board decided to poll the membership regarding the merger of the Party with the BC Conservatives or its de-registration. A General Meeting was called for Saturday March 29, 2008 in Surrey. The poll returns indicated 4:1 ratio in favour of

120-517: Is a Canadian politician. He served as interim leader of the New Democratic Party of British Columbia and as the 32nd premier of British Columbia for six months from August 25, 1999 to February 24, 2000, following the resignation of Glen Clark . Born in Port Alice , British Columbia , Miller worked as a millwright and a councillor for the city of Prince Rupert . He was first elected to

140-566: The BC legislature in the 1986 election , representing the riding of Prince Rupert , and served as the BC NDP's forestry critic while that party was in opposition. He was re-elected to the BC legislature in the 1991 election , representing the new riding of North Coast . With the NDP coming into power, he was appointed minister of forests in the cabinet of Premier Mike Harcourt in November 1991, then served as

160-525: The PEI Tories –was completely wiped off the map. Dosanjh resigned as party leader soon after the election; he had actually conceded defeat a week before voters went to the polls. Despite being the only other party in the Assembly, the BC NDP lacked the four seats then required for official party status. The British Columbia Unity Party had been created as a union of conservative parties. Initially, Reform BC ,

180-699: The Social Credit , the British Columbia Party , and the Family Coalition Party had joined under the "BC Unity" umbrella. By the time the election was called, however, only the Family Coalition Party and a large majority of Reform BC segments had remained in the BC Unity coalition. The other parties had withdrawn to continue independently. The parties would collectively only earn around 4% of

200-632: The Minister of Skills, Training and Labour from September 1993. He was named deputy premier in February 1996 after Glen Clark replaced Harcourt as premier and NDP leader. After winning re-election in 1996 , he continued in his role as deputy premier under Clark until 1999, and variously served as Minister of Municipal Affairs (June 1996–January 1997), Minister of Employment and Investment (January 1997–February 1998) and Minister of Energy and Mines and Minister Responsible for Northern Development (1998–2000). An uncontroversial and moderate politician, Miller

220-564: The Nanaimo-Parksville electoral district in the 2001 election. In 2005, Stelmacker was the party's sole nominated candidate for the 2005 provincial election , running in the Skeena riding. He won 224 votes, 1.74% of the total for the riding. The party held its last annual general meeting on Saturday, October 29, 2005, in Maple Ridge, British Columbia . On November 29, 2006, the party issued

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240-616: The Unity annual general meeting held on September 24 and 25, 2004 in Coquitlam , the BC Unity Party was presented with another proposal of merger by the Conservatives. The Unity delegates did not accept this proposal and instead, affirmed the original agreement-in-principle. This action was not accepted by the BC Conservatives and the merger failed. BC Unity leader Chris Delaney blamed himself for

260-472: The failure of the merger and resigned. Many BC Unity members left the party prior to the September 2004 annual general meeting in order to join the Conservatives and to influence them into accepting the agreement-in-principle. When the merger failed, these former members did not return to the Unity party. In 2005, BC Unity named Daniel Stelmacker as its interim leader. Stelmacker had been a party candidate for

280-485: The popular vote, and an unprecedented 77 of the 79 seats in the provincial legislature—the largest victory in the province's electoral history. The BC NDP, on the other hand, suffered a near-total political collapse. The party lost almost half of the share of the popular vote that it had won in the 1996 election , while its seat count fell from 39 seats to only two—those of Deputy Premier and Education Minister Joy MacPhail and Community Development Minister Jenny Kwan . It

300-636: The unpopularity of the NDP government was so great that most conservative-minded voters chose to vote for the BC Liberals, rather than split the right-of-centre vote once again. The party received only 3.2% of the vote (51,426). On September 1, 2004, BC Unity and the British Columbia Conservative Party announced an agreement-in-principle for the two parties to merge under the Conservative Party name. The deal, however, fell through after BC Conservative Leader Barry Chilton withdrew. At

320-504: The vote, as voters, conscious of vote-splitting that had taken place between the Liberals, Reform BC, and the since-defunct Progressive Democratic Alliance in 1996, united behind the Liberals this time. Ron Gamble, sometime leader and sometime president of the renewed Reform BC continued his opposition to conservative mergers, consistently proclaiming a "Say No to Chris Delaney & BC Unity" policy, until Unity's eventual collapse in 2004 after

340-794: Was easily the worst defeat of a sitting government in British Columbia history. It was also the second-worst defeat of a sitting provincial government in Canada, eclipsed only by the New Brunswick election of 1987 , the Alberta election of 1935 , and the Prince Edward Island election of 1935 . In those elections, the governing party–the New Brunswick Tories , the United Farmers of Alberta and

360-422: Was elected interim leader of the BC NDP by an emergency meeting of the provincial caucus following the sudden resignation of Premier Clark on August 21, 1999. He was sworn in as premier on August 25, and continued in his roles of Minister of Energy and Mines and Minister Responsible for Northern Development. During his brief premiership, Miller's chief of staff was John Horgan , who would become premier in 2017. He

380-457: Was replaced as premier when Ujjal Dosanjh became party leader in February 2000, and he did not run for re-election in the 2001 election . In 2003, Miller supported Bill Blaikie 's bid to become leader of the federal New Democratic Party . In early 2005, Miller was hired by the BC Government as an advisor for the province's offshore oil and gas development team, and has also worked for

400-617: Was the 37th provincial election in the Province of British Columbia , Canada . It was held to elect members of the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia . The election was called on April 18, 2001 and held on May 16, 2001. Voter turnout was 55.4 per cent of all eligible voters. The incumbent British Columbia New Democratic Party (BC NDP), in office since 1991, had been rocked by two major scandals—the Fast Ferries Scandal and

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